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Nicola Sturgeon is facing fresh embarrassment over her handling of the NHS after a former SNP minister published his own rescue plan for the service, including a radical demand for a health tax to pay for improvements.

Alex Neil also criticised the Scottish Government’s recent delivery plan for health and social care which he said needed to be "more specific, detailed and much broader in scope”.

The Scottish Conservatives said he had “gone rogue”, while Labour said it was a “humiliating intervention” for the government and claimed the “mismanagement” of the NHS by the SNP was now “accepted by one of its own backbenchers”.

Mr Neil served as health minister from 2012 to 2014 before being moved in a cabinet reshuffle. He resigned from government in May last year and sits as a backbencher for Airdrie and Shotts.

He claimed in his 10-point discussion paper that powers should be transferred to Holyrood to allow it to introduce what he admitted would be a "deeply controversial" health levy.

Nicola Sturgeon under more pressure over NHSCredit:
EPA

Launching the plan in Glasgow, he said he supported the efforts made by the SNP government to improve the NHS, adding: “But much more needs to be done, including the injection of more cash to avoid a long-term crisis of the type we are witnessing south of the border.

"The major challenge facing the NHS is how to keep pace with the rapidly-changing levels and patterns of demands from patients - and how we pay for the improvements.

"The longer-term NHS issues cannot be swept under the carpet. The whole British system is in stress and while efficiency savings are needed, they will not be enough, which is why I float the idea of a separate health tax - deeply controversial but cannot be ignored.”

Mr Neil said the NHS already accounted for 40 per cent of the Government's current budget, a proportion that could not be significantly increased without impacting on other areas.

"To persuade the public to pay higher taxes to pay for essential improvements to health and social care, it is necessary to consider introducing a hypothecated tax to fund these services," he added.

"That would allow the public to establish a direct correlation between the money they are investing in health and social care with the quality and level of services being provided; and hopefully, thereby, obtain their agreement to higher funding.”

Health professionals have expressed concern over the state of the NHSCredit:
PA

Other recommendations include a long-term business plan covering the period to 2030, measures to prevent ill-health and improved earlier detection of diseases such as cancer.

Mr Neil also advocated increasing the supply of new doctors and nurses by a "substantial number" as well as "urgent measures to address staff shortages in the NHS and social care".

The plan was published by the Options for Scotland think-tank run by Gordon Wilson, the former SNP leader, who said Mr Neil had done the NHS a great service.

Donald Cameron, the Tory health spokesman, said it was the latest example of Mr Neil contradicting both SNP and Scottish Government policy, adding: “SNP HQ will be furious that he is trying to sideline the health secretary on this one. His pleas internally have obviously fallen on deaf ears, and now he is taking his own agenda to the wider public.”

Alex Cole-Hamilton, for the Scottish Lib Dems, said it would be embarrassing for Ms Robison to hear from her predecessor that the NHS needed to do more to get to grips with the NHS.

He added: “The truth is it says a great deal about an SNP Government obsessed with independence and which doesn’t tolerate any rocking of the boat, criticism or alternate thinking within its own ranks.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said it was investing record amounts in the service and staff numbers were at an all-time high, adding: “However, we want to do even more and through our health and social care delivery plan we are already taking forward many of the suggestions in this paper - including a heavy focus on preventative actions such as minimum unit pricing for alcohol and on tackling wider health and social inequalities.”

She added that there were no plans to introduce a hypothecated health tax.